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Did SFII save the SNES?

I

Instigator

Banned
I guess the question applies to the US since the 16-bit was close there. Japan was Nintendo's from the get-go and Nintendo always had trouble with Europe, SFII or not.

Thinking back, there are only so few games that really make all kinds people go out, rush to a store and buy a system just for a game. The SFII license eventually lost its appeal with the release of samey updates and the break of the exclusivity agreement with Nintendo. But in the early years, SFII was probably the key game that helped the SNES keep its momentum, despite brand loyalty and quite healthy third-party support otherwise.

P.S. Anyone ever play SFII recently? Ha ha, it's so slow... :lol
 
i haven't played SF 2 on SNES/Genesis recently, but i have played it on Xbox. seems like an OK speed to me...

or did you just mean the snes version?
 
MomoPufflet said:
Was wondering the same thing... Haven't played the SNES version in forever.
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Yeah, that's what I meant. Forget SFII Turbo or Super SFII, go for the original SFII. It is unbearable.
 
I bought a SNES because Street Fighter II...It came with Mario All Stars and I didn't plug the cart till months later...
I was not interested in other games but Street Fighter II :P


Slow ? Try the PAL version then... :P
 
Street Fighter II was a huge game for the SNES, and the way Nintendo worked it, they got the maximum sales benefit. That was THE GAME to play in high school at the time, so many people bought an SNES just for it.

For the follow-up, I remember first SFII Turbo was going to come out on Genesis first, and it was to be a big score for Sega. Then somehow Nintendo got an timed exclusive... By the time it finally came out later for Genesis, everyone had already played the SNES version to death. :lol
 
I don't remember exactly learning that Street Fighter II was exclusive to SNES. I don't have any releases dates, other than SFII for SNES came out in 1992, and SFII:SCE on Genesis in 1993. But the Genesis version suffered in presenting a weird color scheme when compared to the SNES edition. Was there a speed difference between the two?

Of course Street Fighter II helped the SNES, but it did not "save" it. Saying so would be like ignoring games like Final Fantasy III (or VI for the sake of labeling it correctly), The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger or Super Metroid; exclusives games that turned out quite popular in America. Street Fighter II is certainly one of them, but I would like to see sales compared to Final Fantasy III.

It attracted a whole different market than RPG thought, and that's a fact...
 
I don't think Street Fighter II "saved" the SNES, because it wasn't in any sort of desperate situation that required "saving." But, it was a very popular game that helped sell the SNES system at a time when Sega was also starting to become a real force in the market. I think SF2 was certainly a big boost for Nintendo, especially before the later revisions were announced for the Genesis. As Laurent said above, there were several other good exclusives on the system, so the SNES would've still been successful even if SF2 hadn't come along when it did.

The only way the SNES's market chances could have really been hurt by the absence of SF2 was if the Genesis had somehow gotten SF2 at that time (instead of the SNES), and the SNES never received any version of SF2 after that.
 
yes, I read reports in EGM that the SNES got off to a very slow start, Genesis was kicking its arse and outshining it with games like Street of Rage & Sonic, sales didn't turn around until after it got SFII, I remember getting all excited when Sushi-X reported SFII for the SNES
 
it greatly helped SNES sales in the USA and "saved" it in regards of allowing them to have about equal sales to the Genesis IMHO. got alot of hype prior to MK. without that game SNES might have really fautered
 
Link316 said:
yes, I read reports in EGM that the SNES got off to a very slow start, Genesis was kicking its arse and outshining it with games like Street of Rage & Sonic, sales didn't turn around until after it got SFII, I remember getting all excited when Sushi-X reported SFII for the SNES
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Maybe it played a bigger role than I thought. But one has to remember that the Sega Genesis was released almost 2 full years before SNES launch in America (Genesis was available all over the country in September 1989, while the SNES lauched in September 1991 - Sega Genesis History - Super Nintendo History), any consoles that would have been launch this late was bound to get slow sales at first...

The Sega Genesis took the number one spot in America for hardware sales. The SNES sold more console worldwile... They both performed extremely well and introduced the "2 console manufacturer market that coexist" concept...
 
I think SFII gave the SNES a big shot in the arm, but wasn't the dealbreaker for its overall popularity in the US. It was just One More Big Title that helped push the SNES a bit further into the lead.

I still remember an article in Gamepro at the time comparing SFII to MK (ONE!!), especially since the Genny had the "cool" version of MK. The guy on MK's side essentially made the argument that MK was a better game because in Street Fighter II, a person with skill would always win against a newbie/hack and that was no fun! :lol x 1,000,000
 
I'd say yes, Street Fighter II was the biggest thing since sliced bread back in the 90's and it was the reason why me and my friends bought a SNES.
 
No doubt SFII helped the SNES surpass the Genesis. In Japan, the three renditions were all million sellers (one of them a two-million seller even). You don't sell that many games without selling systems.
 
Laurent said:
Maybe it played a bigger role than I thought. But one has to remember that the Sega Genesis was released almost 2 full years before SNES launch in America (Genesis was available all over the country in September 1989, while the SNES lauched in September 1991 - Sega Genesis History - Super Nintendo History), any consoles that would have been launch this late was bound to get slow sales at first...

The Sega Genesis took the number one spot in America for hardware sales. The SNES sold more console worldwile... They both performed extremely well and introduced the "2 console manufacturer market that coexist" concept...
Click to expand...

The Genesis had slow sales before the release of Sonic, so that 2-year headstart didn't account for much.

Genesis lacked a system seller (pre-Sonic) and Nintendo still had a strangehold on most developers (just see what Sega had to do to bring Strider and Ghouls & Ghosts to the system), both vital to the success of a console. And even after the 'Sonic boom', Genesis suffered a notorious dry spell until the release of the second Sonic where better third-party support finally materialized.
 
Instigator said:
The Genesis had slow sales before the release of Sonic, so that 2-year headstart didn't account for much.

Genesis lacked a system seller (pre-Sonic) and Nintendo still had a strangehold on most developers (just see what Sega had to do to bring Strider and Ghouls & Ghosts to the system), both vital to the success of a console. And even after the 'Sonic boom', Genesis suffered a notorious dry spell until the release of the second Sonic where better third-party support finally materialized.
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You can't ignore the Sport segment of the Sega Genesis, which attracted a lot of US customers... I think you are painting a rather dark image of it all...
 
The SNES never needed saving, at least not during that time frame -- but SF2 sure did convince many more people to buy one. I know that when I saw SF2 in the arcade that I'd pay any cost to have it at home (first I ever saw of it was Ryu vs Sagat on Sagat's stage), and then when I saw it in Nintendo Power, I began counting the days until I could bring it home. I went similarly insane when SF2 Turbo Hyper Fighting came out.

Even before SF2, the SNES still had Nintendo's franchises, not to mention SquareSoft RPG's.... and how about games like Contra III and Super Castlevania IV? And how about later on when they relaxed the gore restriction? Mortal Kombat II for the SNES was uber awesome. The SNES had so many great games... man I miss those days.

One could argue that toward the end of its lifespan, that games like Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Country "saved" the SNES for an extra year or so... but of course the PlayStation could not be stopped.
 
Teddman said:
Street Fighter II was a huge game for the SNES, and the way Nintendo worked it, they got the maximum sales benefit. That was THE GAME to play in high school at the time, so many people bought an SNES just for it.

For the follow-up, I remember first SFII Turbo was going to come out on Genesis first, and it was to be a big score for Sega. Then somehow Nintendo got an timed exclusive... By the time it finally came out later for Genesis, everyone had already played the SNES version to death. :lol
Click to expand...

Wasn't there some kind of uproar when the Genesis version was something like Championship edition...I think it had 6 speed settings and the SNES crowd felt 'betrayed'

Well they were happy when SFII Turbo came out later for them with 8 speeds :lol

I guess was the beginning of all the SFII Championship Turbo Alpha blah blah
 
It was why I bought my SNES! Rented it like a billion times before finally buying it. I loved it!

And now I'm all about SF3rd Stike so I guess I still do..
 
if anything "saved" the SNES, it was probably Donkey Kong Country. Helped Nintendo zoom past the Genesis, and also held off the initial attack from PSX/Saturn. SF2 just helped solidify Nintendo's position if anything.

i remember thinking SNES was kinda slow even back then. ONe of the only good things to come out of my brother buying a gamegenie was that there were codes for like 4 different speed settings to make SF2 faster.
 
Remember the "Play It Loud" advertisement campaign? The one that features Donkey Kong Country was awesome... "This is 16 Bit!" comment convince quite a few people not to switch to next generation yet...
 
That was 1992. Street Fighter II was amazing, but SNES still had a killer line up compared to Sega's 1992 Genesis games.

Compare Snes' lineup of Zelda 3, Contra 3, Mario Kart, OOT (a year before the genesis ver.) to a Genesis lineup that didn't perk up until November of that year (Sor2, Sonic2).

Check out fors yard for Genesis in 1992 :

http://homepage.mac.com/greggillis/

it was abysmal.

SNES would have had a good 1992 regardless of SF2.

1993 is another story.
 
Laurent said:
You can't ignore the Sport segment of the Sega Genesis, which attracted a lot of US customers... I think you are painting a rather dark image of it all...
Click to expand...

What?

Sports were a big deal during the entire Genesis era, but they were in relative low numbers early on, competing with a wide array of action, shooters and arcade conversions.

Basically, the SNES eclipsed the pre-Sonic Genesis sales in a couple of months. We're talking about 1.5 million Gennys sold in the almost two-year period before Sonic. After that, both systems were selling over 4+ million systems each every year, even more so after hitting the magic 99 dollars price tag in mid 1992 making both consoles highly affordable.

I think you're out of your element, Laurent. :)
 
SFII was my #1 reason to buying a SNES years ago. Did it save the SNES? I didn't know the SNES needed saving since SFII was released around the same time with the SNES.
 
Instigator is spot on. A lot of people think the Genesis was a roaring success right out of the gate, which isn't true. 16-bit didn't start taking off in a big way until the SNES and Sonic were introduced. As Instigator said the SNES basically "caught up" with the Genesis in its initial fall selling period in '91. The Genesis didn't take the sales lead until '93.

Street Fighter II was released almost a year after the SNES. IIRC, it came out around June/July '92.
 
Instigator said:
I guess the question applies to the US since the 16-bit was close there. Japan was Nintendo's from the get-go and Nintendo always had trouble with the UK, SFII or not.
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Fixed. AFAIK, the SNES reamed the Genesis pretty much everywhere else but in the UK. They have always been Sega-fans for some reason...

EDIT: I meant in Europe.
 
Hyoushi said:
Fixed. AFAIK, the SNES reamed the Genesis pretty much everywhere else but in the UK. They have always been Sega-fans for some reason...

EDIT: I meant in Europe.
Click to expand...

nah, Genesis and SNES were almost even for the whole time they were competing together in the North America. It was never a landslide for either console. Sega even had a higher share in the US at certain times than Nintendo did (console wise).




16-bit: the only place Nintendo reamed anyone was Japan (out of the three major markets).
 
I think Mario World proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system was ten times better than the genny (something that consumers understood was well). Besides, SFII was just one drop in the bucket when compared to the huge list of amazing games available for the system.

And SLOW? Hell son, go put in SFII Turbo for the SNES and come back and tell me that shit. Genny couldn't even come close to matching the SNES version. It was like night and day. I don't think anything got on my nerves more than the muddy Genesis visuals and shitty-ass sound.
 
evilromero said:
I think Mario World proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system was ten times better than the genny (something that consumers understood was well). Besides, SFII was just one drop in the bucket when compared to the huge list of amazing games available for the system.

And SLOW? Hell son, go put in SFII Turbo for the SNES and come back and tell me that shit. Genny couldn't even come close to matching the SNES version. It was like night and day. I don't think anything got on my nerves more than the muddy Genesis visuals and shitty-ass sound.
Click to expand...

And the mud throwing from 15 years ago restarts now. :lol
 
Sapienshomo said:
nah, Genesis and SNES were almost even for the whole time they were competing together in the North America. It was never a landslide for either console. Sega even had a higher share in the US at certain times than Nintendo did (console wise).




16-bit: the only place Nintendo reamed anyone was Japan (out of the three major markets).
Click to expand...

Actually, the SNES DID ream the Genesis every year in the US except one I believe. I'm not certain on which year (either 93 or 94- DK was released Fall 94) the Genesis actually garnered a tad more market share, but it was only that once. I would have to hand it to Sega's marketing department at the time, which used the image complex to overturn SNES sales. Other than that I think consumers could easily see which system was actually better when put side-by-side.
 
Instigator said:
I guess the question applies to the US since the 16-bit was close there. Japan was Nintendo's from the get-go and Nintendo always had trouble with Europe, SFII or not.

Thinking back, there are only so few games that really make all kinds people go out, rush to a store and buy a system just for a game. The SFII license eventually lost its appeal with the release of samey updates and the break of the exclusivity agreement with Nintendo. But in the early years, SFII was probably the key game that helped the SNES keep its momentum, despite brand loyalty and quite healthy third-party support otherwise.

P.S. Anyone ever play SFII recently? Ha ha, it's so slow... :lol
Click to expand...

What gave the SNES the boost it needed to beat the Genesis in the US was Donkey Kong Country. DKC's impact was kind of like Halo 2 and Halo rolled into one. It had the huge, immediate impact and hype of Halo 2 (they were both also released around the same point in their respective consoles' lifespans), while it had the longetivity and the system selling capabilities of Halo 1.


Street Fighter 2 definitely was a big game, especially on the SNES. But it isn' what "saved" the SNES.
 
Sapienshomo said:
nah, Genesis and SNES were almost even for the whole time they were competing together in the North America. It was never a landslide for either console. Sega even had a higher share in the US at certain times than Nintendo did (console wise).




16-bit: the only place Nintendo reamed anyone was Japan (out of the three major markets).
Click to expand...
Actually, I'm pretty sure the Genesis didn't do too well compared to the SNES in Europe, either.

In terms of sales, you can say this about the 16-bit systems

The Sega Genesis was like the Nintendo 64. The majority of its success stems from the North American market, where it was a close second in sales. Didn't do too well elsewhere.

The Super Nintendo was like the Playstation. Dominated all the markets except for North America, where it remained neck and neck with the Nintendo Message:


64/ Sega Genesis for a good portion of the generation, but eventually winning out in that region, too.


... I realise I didn't assign anything to the Saturn. I uh... guess that would be the Turbographix.
 
GaimeGuy said:
What gave the SNES the boost it needed to beat the Genesis in the US was Donkey Kong Country. DKC's impact was kind of like Halo 2 and Halo rolled into one. It had the huge, immediate impact and hype of Halo 2 (they were both also released around the same point in their respective consoles' lifespans), while it had the longetivity and the system selling capabilities of Halo 1.


Street Fighter 2 definitely was a big game, especially on the SNES. But it isn' what "saved" the SNES.
Click to expand...

DKC was released in late 1994. The SNES didn't need any saving then. The switch to next-gen was iminent with new players and Sega was already distracted with extra peripherals and its own next-gen plans. The market was Nintendo's, almost all of it. 1995 (and 1996) was further confirmation of the somewhat depressed state of 16-bit gaming. It's no wonder the industry suffered a mini crash then, an event often overlooked in gaming circles.

DKC was more about milking the current gen and keeping the current userbase happy really until the N64.
 
Instigator said:
DKC was released in late 1994. The SNES didn't need any saving then. The switch to next-gen was iminent with new players and Sega was already distracted with extra peripherals and its own next-gen plans. The market was Nintendo's, almost all of it. 1995 (and 1996) was further confirmation of the somewhat depressed state of 16-bit gaming. It's no wonder the industry suffered a mini crash then, an event often overlooked in gaming circles.

DKC was more about milking the current gen and keeping the current userbase happy really until the N64.
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No. You are wrong there. DKC3 was about milking the current gen. DKC was completely viable. In fact 94 was a fucking great year, as was 95 (with Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star)
 
besides the voices, the genny version of sf2 is closer to the arcade. the snes music is remixed to the snes chipset and sounds very "wah wah" while the genny music is produced by a sound set that was very close to arcade machines at the time. the genny has faster gameplay and with the 6 button arcade pad theres just no comparison. graphically the genny version actually had better animation(see ryus walking animation in the snes version)and looked closer to the arcade because the snes version had a "softer" look for some reason.
 
evilromero said:
No. You are wrong there. DKC3 was about milking the current gen. DKC was completely viable. In fact 94 was a fucking great year, as was 95 (with Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star)
Click to expand...

A matter of perspective, I guess.

I thought 94-96 were weak for 16-bit.
 
evilromero said:
Other than that I think consumers could easily see which system was actually better when put side-by-side.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't think they could. If you put Sonic next to Mario World (as Sega did at a 1991 CES), most people will tell you Sonic looked better.

As to which one does actually looked better, I think we'll leave it to personal taste.
 
Genesis SF2 had the crappier color palette and the voices sounded like they were being spoken into an underwater tin can. I never got what the big deal about it was supposed to be, when compared to the SNES versions.

Amusing how fights still break out when a comparison is brought up :lol
 
Barnimal said:
besides the voices, the genny version of sf2 is closer to the arcade. the snes music is remixed to the snes chipset and sounds very "wah wah" while the genny music is produced by a sound set that was very close to arcade machines at the time. the genny has faster gameplay and with the 6 button arcade pad theres just no comparison. graphically the genny version actually had better animation(see ryus walking animation in the snes version)and looked closer to the arcade because the snes version had a "softer" look for some reason.
Click to expand...


The only thing the Genesis version had over SNES was the 6-button pad, but we all had to pay extra for that.
 
Instigator said:
A matter of perspective, I guess.

I thought 94-96 were weak for 16-bit.
Click to expand...
Jesus. One look at 94 and all you need to know is DKC, Super Metroid and MKII (now THERE'S a game where the Genesis version just paled in comparison).
 
Yeah, I never understood the "Genesis SF2 is better because of an accessory you have to go out and buy!" argument either. As if there weren't six button pads (or better yet, joysticks) for SNES.
 
Can we get some fucking pictures in here? I mean come on! Do some people honestly think Sonic 1 looks BETTER than Mario World? Let's put some Genesis games next to FFIII, Super Metroid, MKII and Kirby Super Star. Hell SFII Turbo next to CE!
 
evilromero said:
Jesus. One look at 94 and all you need to know is DKC, Super Metroid and MKII (now THERE'S a game where the Genesis version just paled in comparison).
Click to expand...


Super Metroid alone would have been enough. That game put to rest all doubts I had about the whole Sega/Nintendo battle. I still love the Genesis, but no game on either system compares to Super Metroid.

Such a blast playing that for the first time.
 
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